Watering your new plants in a dry summer | The best start

We’ve a sprinkling of old school (and new) ideas to help give your new plants the best start in life over this dry Summer we’re experiencing. With hosepipe bans looming over us, we need to get creative with our water to help our new plants and keep those established favourites flourishing, too. We’ve other ways to manage heat stress in your plants, too (Blog: August 2018)

Get creative with water use and you can make it go a long way in your planting regime. Here’s a few of our favourite tips to get you started…

Get creative with watering this Summer

Use water sparingly and give special focus to new seedlings, perennials, trees or shrubs – these won’t yet have a strong enough root system to work the water up from lower in the soil.

Suppress the weeds with matting and you’ll get a handy boost on retaining water, too. Much like a mulch, weed matting – available in rolls or pre-cut squares – helps to conserve moisture in the soil, slowly allowing the water to permeate without allowing weeds to establish.

Don’t forget your water-storing granules and feeds. The clever granules in Broadleaf P4 Water Storing Granules can reduce watering frequency by up to 75%. They create tiny reservoirs of water within the soil around your new plants. Whether you’re planting Cell Grown Plants all year round or bareroot plants from November to April, give them the best possible start by using Rootgrow Mycorrhizal Fungi to enhance their root systems too.

Larger plants will need more water for longer as it’s got further to go to support their growth at the top!

Collect water whenever the heavens open – buy a water butt but remember, don’t use this water for your seedlings as any fungal content could be damaging for very young plants.

It’s not just rainfall you can use – leftover “grey water” from baths, showers and paddling pools can also be reused for watering – just don’t use if it’s full of bubble bath or other bath or hair products.

If you’ve some new planting, remember to fill your newly dug hole to the top with water, let it drain away and then pop in your plant. A handy little reservoir of moisture for your new plant when there’s a dry spell on the cards.

We’ve blogged frequently on watering as it’s critical, whatever the conditions. You might like to read: